COURSE OUTLINE: GER 4004/GER 5004
GERMAN ROMANTICIM AND ITS EUROPEAN CONTEXT Mondays 12 – 2 pm
Professor Rüdiger Görner (Arts 2.06) Email: [email protected] Hrs of Consultation in Sem B: Mon 17-18 pm and Tue 11-12 am
Venue:
Wk 1 The Romantic Experience. A Fairy Tale? Matters of Definition 20.1.2020 Minutes:
Wk 2 Historical Contexts: The Napoleon-Complex 27.1.2020 Minutes: Presentations:
Wk 3 The Attraction of Ruins 3.2.2020 Minutes: Presentations:
Wk 4 10.2.2020 In Search of the Nocturne and other musical Features of Romanticism (from John Field to Schubert, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Chopin and Schumann)
Minutes: Presentations:
Wk 5 The Romanticism of E.T.A. Hoffmann
17.2.2020 Special Lecture by Dr. Kaltërina Latifi Minutes: Presentations:
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Wk 6 Perceptions and Images: Notes on Romantic Art 24.2.2020 Minutes:
Presentations:
Wk 7 Reading Week 2.3.2020
Wk 8 Lyrical Revelations. Romantic Poetry I 9.3.2020 Minutes: Presentations:
Wk 9 Romantic Topographies or the Mythology of Landscapes (The Rhine, “Italy”, The Alps, Scotland) 16.3.2020 Minutes: Presentations:
Wk 10 23.3.2020 The Uncanny: Mesmerism, Magnetism and the Demonic Or: The Fantastic versus Science in Romanticism
Minutes: Presentations:
Wk 11 Lyrical Revelations. Romantic Poetry II 30.3.2020 Minutes: Presentations:
Wk 12 The Romantic Legacy 6.4.2020 Presentations:
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COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE OF TWO GUEST LECTURES:
BASF-Lecture Series of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations at QMUL
21st January 2020: Maximiliaan van Woudenberg (Cambridge): Anglo-German Cosmopolitanism at the Villa Diodati in 1816.
In: ARTS ONE LECTURE THEATRE AT 18:15 pm
The Annual London Heinrich-von-Kleist-Lecture at QMUL/Dept of German
11th February 2020 Prof. Dr. Helmut Schneider (University of Bonn):
THE ALLURE OF THE SUPERNATURAL: HEINRICH VON KLEIST’S ROMANTIC CHALLENGE TO ENLIGHTENMENT REASON
ARTS LECTURE THEATRE ONE at 18:15 pm
Reading list
Primary Texts
Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales. A Selection Introduced by Naomi Lewis Translated by L. W. Kingsland. Illustrated by Vilhelm Pedersen, and Lorenz Fröhlich Oxford Paperbacks Oxford World's Classics 2009.
Charles Baudelaire: collected essays (incl. essays on Romantic Art) Transl. by Felix W. Leakey. Cambridge University Press 1990.
Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus. Ed. with an introduction and notes by Kerry McSweeney and Peter Sabor. Oxford University Press/Oxford World’s Classics 1999.
Benjamin Constant, Adolphe. Translated by Margaret Mauldon. Edited by Patrick Colem. Oxford World’s Classics 2009.
Joseph von Eichendorff, Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts Transl. by Hughes, Glyn Tegai. Edward Arnold Publishers London 1961.
Ugo Foscolo, Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1802: Ultime Lettre di Jacopo Ortis). Foreword by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. (Hesperus Classics N.Y.C. 2001) 4
Heinrich Heine, The complete poems: a modern English version Oxford University Press 1982
E. T. A. Hoffmann The Golden Pot and Other Tales Edited and translated by Ritchie Robertson Oxford Paperbacks Oxford World's Classics 2008.
E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Sandmann. Transl. by Christopher Moncrieff. ALMA Classics.Richmond 2013.
Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Tales. Edited with an introduction and notes by David Van Leer. Oxford Paperbacks Oxford World's Classics 2008.
John Polidori and others The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre Edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Morrison and Chris Baldick Oxford Paperbacks Oxford World's Classics 2008.
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, Narrative poems Bodley Head/London 1984.
Thomas L. Peacock, Nightmare Abbey/Crotchet Castle. Ed. with an introduction by Raymond Wright. Penguin Books Harmondsworth 1986.
Madame de Staël, Corinne or Italy. Translated and edited by Sylvia Raphael and with introduction by John Isbell. Oxford Paperbacks Oxford World's Classics 2008.
Stendhal: The Red and the Black. Transl. by Haig, Stirling. Landmarks of World Literature. Cambridge University Press 1989.
William Wordsworth, Selected Poetry. Edited by Stephen Gill and Duncan Wu Oxford Paperbacks Oxford World's Classics 2008.
Secondary Material
Isaiah Berlin, The Roots of Roamnticism. Ed. by Henry Hardy. Pimplico 2000.
Anita Brookner, Romanticism and its Discontents. Penguin Books. Harmondsworth 2000.
Marilyn Butler, Romantics, Rebels & Reactionaries. English Literature and its Background 1760-1830. Opus. OUP 1981.
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Michael Gassenmeier/Norbert H. Platz (Eds.), Beyond the Suburbs of the Mind: Exploring English Romanticism. Verlag die blaue Eule. Essen 1987.
Dirk van Hulle and Mark Nixon (Eds.), “All Sturm and no Drang”. Beckett and Romanticism. Beckett at Reading 2006. Rodopi. Amsterdam/New York 2007 (various essays)
ESSAY QUESTIONS (SUGGESTIONS ONLY!) Essay Questions (suggestions)
1) Discuss the significance of the Nocturne as a Romantic form of artistic expression.
2) “Nature” plays a significant part in the aesthetics of Romanticism. Examine this phenomenon with reference two tow examples from two different literatures.
3) Compare chapter one of Joseph von Eichendorff’s novella “Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing” with the opening chapter of another Romantic novella of your choice in terms of their reference to Romantic subjectivity.
4) Why did the ruin turn into a Romantic icon? Discuss with reference to at least two paintings of ruins.
5) Discuss the Romantic fascination with the hero, or “great men”, with particular reference to Napoleon as portrayed by Heine and Stendhal.
6) Compare Edgar A. Poe’s poem “The Raven” with another Romantic poem of your choice.
7) Compare the approach to writing Romantic fairytales with reference to Andersen and the Grimm brothers. What makes this approach “Romantic”?
8) Analyse one of the Heine poems in the Blackboard File for Wk 5 and discuss it with reference to George Eliot’s essay on Heine (“German Wit”)
9) Compare poetic conceptions of Science as portrayed in poems by Poe and Herschel
Assessment 6
One Seminar Presentation OR Minutes of Session in Sem B: 20% One 3,000 word essay (Level 5), one 2,500 word essay (Level 4) to be handed in on
Sunday, 26th April 2020 at 23:55: 80%
Electronic version on QMPlus/TURNITIN Late submissions without an extension will be penalized, as set out in the School Handbook. Only the Year 1 Senior Tutor of the School of Languages, Linguistics, and Film can grant an extension (not the course organizer or any of the teachers) and applications should be made in advance of the deadline.
Ensure that you use ‘Page number function’ (page number should appear at the upper right of the page) and ‘Footnotes’. Use 1.5 spacing; 2 cm left and right hand margin, justified; Times New Roman 12 pts; ensure that all citations are properly footnoted (see Student Handbook for reference); ensure that you provide a list of all bibliographical material used at the end of your essay (in alphabetical order!); ensure that you discuss key-concepts of the material quoted; do not leave any quotation without your comment. QUOTATIONS DO NOT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES!!